I’m on a hunger-inducing tour of Veselka’s kitchen at the venerable Ukrainian restaurant’s new outpost in Brooklyn. Massive pots of purple borscht are simmering, sizzling potato pancakes come fresh out of the fryer. Would I like to try some plump Pestrogi, the brand’s pastrami-stuffed-pierogi collaboration with Katz’s Deli? Don’t mind if I do. “But this time of year, you can’t go wrong with borscht,” proprietor Jason Birchard tells me as New York bakes in a heat wave outside. “The potato and short rib pierogies are amazing, too.”
Veselka is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, its original East Village location a Big Apple institution that became something more than a place to simply chow down. It seems everybody in New York has a story about a late night that began or ended at Veselka, from hungry NYU kids to the city’s artistic community, all wooed by affordable comfort food and …